No silver bullet to combat IEDs

June 24, 2011

In his speech on Wednesday, President Obama said that our objective in Afghanistan is not nation-building. That may please the United States Conference of Mayors, which said this week that American taxes should be paying for bridges in Baltimore and Kansas City, not in Baghdad and Kandahar. We know the wars have cost more than a trillion dollars all told … but how that money is spent is not always clear.

Case in point: a little-known Department of Defense organization that has spent billions trying to develop a way to combat improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. While no one argues with the goal, there are questions about who is getting the money and what they’re spending it on. To learn more, we bring you an investigation from our colleagues at the Center for Public Integrity. Need to Know’s Shoshana Guy reports.

PBS NewsHour will live-stream updates, including news briefings, from Boston as they happen.

Comments

The Fun Ghoul

Hi Love the show… I have a question. Your piece on IEDs was excellent. With the technology seen in the link below… Why are we investing so much money in trying to develop a system that already exists? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PUusycx3Xc

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